Sacrificed For The Greater Good

When I first started quilting, I was too frugal to waste fabric. That included putting a throw-away border around projects to hand quilt. I’m wiser now (older, too, but we won’t mention that), and I have a lot of fabric in my stash. Some of it was never great to begin with, and time hasn’t made it better. There are two projects I intend to hand quilt, and I am ready to sacrifice some of my scraps for the greater good.

The brown stripe on the edge is the throw-away border

The frugal part of me still balks at not saving all my scraps, but the realistic part is getting the upper hand. There is only so much one can do with bits and pieces that don’t match one’s current artistic vision. To help quiet that shrill voice, I am using my scraps of embroidery floss to finish some marked squares I inherited from my grandmother.

Using what I have

I’ve used several different shades of yellow. They blend just fine, and I used a variegated floss for the flowers (also a scrap left from another project), so it looks like I intended to have variety in the piece.

My citrusy flower ring

I realized early enough that I didn’t have enough leftover floss for all the flowers, but I had enough orange for half of the center flowers. As it turns out, I found another few strands of the red, which I used on the points. The piece is balanced, which is all that counts. I’m not entering it in any contests, so I don’t have to justify my decisions to anyone but my own inner critic.

Luck and wisdom!